


children of a lesser god

by akaparalian



Series: we're usually about to die [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 11:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akaparalian/pseuds/akaparalian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What the hell," he finally says, the words incredulous and bursting out of him without a reason, and everyone's looking at him. "No, really," he adds when none of them answer. "What the hell are we talking about?" (Or, a lesson in myths and monsters.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	children of a lesser god

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mooitstimdrake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mooitstimdrake/gifts).



> Ahahaha, I had fun with this. Expect to see more of this AU.

When Jason first stumbles into Luke Castellan, he's twelve years old, wandering around downtown Gotham with the intent of jacking someone's tires.

  
He's too busy ducking into alleys and shadows to notice the lurking figures in the darkness, and instead of noticing three other kids with his eyes he notices them with his feet, tripping over someone's outstretched leg and hearing the resulting yelp of pain even as he crashes into the ground.

  
Without a second thought he's on his feet again and scowling, ready to tear whoever this is a new one for making so much noise, because he's in the middle of an operation, here, but as soon as he gets a good look he's switching tracks from frustration to alarm, because that is more blood than he's seen in a while.

  
The blood is coming from a kid on the ground, and the two girls next to him are looking up at Jason with almost identical glares, despite that they're otherwise pretty physically different. One has inky black hair, cropped short and straight, and a more muscular build; the other is sunny-blonde, hair long and curly and tied back, and kind of skinny. Bleeding guy, on the other hand, is almost like a mix of the two: he's blond, but despite looking like he hasn't been getting his three square meals, he's muscular in a scrappy way. All three of them are obviously pretty used to getting in fights; beyond the, well, blood, they've got a collection of scrapes and bruises and cuts and scars that would impress anyone, even though they don't look that much older than Jason himself.

  
He opens his mouth, about to ask them why the hell they’re hiding out and/or bleeding in this stupid alley, but before he can say anything, the dark-haired girl snaps up at him, her voice sharp and quiet. "He's fine. Get lost."

  
Jason snorts, kneeling down where he stands in direct contradiction to her instructions. "Yeah, right," he says, years of living on the streets and getting a bit roughed up himself assuring him that he's not overstepping any boundaries. "He's not fine. No one losing that much blood is fine. If you want, I could get him some bandages, though," he offers quickly when her scowl gets five shades darker in the span of a few milliseconds. He's not actually sure why he's offering - they're complete strangers, after all. None of the three looks even vaguely familiar, and that's really pretty surprising, because Jason knows pretty much everyone in this part of town, by virtue of having helped or been helped by most of them at least once. And he certainly knew all the kids - in a place like Gotham, birds of a feather were much more likely to survive if they flocked together, so even lone wolves had to come into the fold sometimes. But these three were clearly not from around here, and while that could mean nothing, it could mean trouble.

  
There's also the fact that bleeding kid looks less like he got in a fight and more like he got mauled by a bear or something, but Jason's honestly trying to ignore that.

  
It takes one more tense moment, but finally the three of them exchange a look before dark-haired girl nods slowly, holding Jason's eyes in a way that indicates clearly that, whether or not they're going with him, she doesn't trust him farther than she can throw him. That's okay - he wouldn't expect them to. He certainly doesn't find it insulting; God knows _he_ wouldn't trust a stranger who suddenly came up to him and his injured companion on the street, whether or not said stranger offered some form of medical care. These kids must be pretty desperate if they're willing to overcome that lack of trust and follow him. That or they're pretty confident about their ability to fight their way out, which also seems like a fair assessment.

  
At any rate, he waits for the girls to slowly help bleeding guy to his feet - it looks like the injury is mainly to his thigh, which makes walking pretty tough, but hey, at least there aren't really any vital organs in your thighs - and then he starts to lead them through the labyrinth of the city's streets, Gotham's underbelly twisting and hiding in dark corners of an already-dark city.

  
"So," he says as he walks, casting a glance over his shoulder at them, toothy grin eating up his face. "Where are you guys from, anyway?"

  
Bleeding guy half-smiles back at him, the girls silent and looking around constantly, like they're being hunted. It's kind of giving Jason the heebie-jeebies, but he's tuning it out. "Around," he says, and that's not an answer, so Jason just snorts.

  
"Well, I'm a local, so you're in good hands," Jason informs him. "My name's Jason, by the way," he tacks on, turning and leading them down a side street with signs on storefronts in Polish and German and a bunch of other languages he doesn't know, probably Russian or Hungarian or something. Bleeding guy smiles again, and even though he's looking pretty pale, Jason considers that a victory.

  
It doesn't take long until he reaches the store he's looking for, and it certainly stands out - among a litany of faded, grimy white signs and cracking concrete and asphalt, the deep red brick of Sabine's shop is almost shocking. The three kids hang back a bit nervously, but Jason throws the door open and walks right in, waiting for the girls to help bleeding guy through the doorway before he leads them into the shop proper.

  
Sabine's not at the counter when he opens it, but by the time the door is swinging shut she's leaning on it expectantly. Jason takes a deep breath out of habit, the warm, earthy scents of shelves and shelves of herbs and homemade medicines sweeping over him with an almost soporific feeling. Then he strides forward confidently, leaning over to peck Sabine on both dark, wrinkly cheeks the way she's taught him to, feeling the way she smiles beneath the greeting. Then he steps back, rocking his weight back and forth as he gestures behind him. "Hi, Sabine," he says. "These mysterious strangers need some bandages."

  
"Hello, Jason," she says, and the greeting having been exchanged she shifts her attention completely away from him, looking over the three kids with a critical, trained eye. "He needs a lot more than some bandages, from the looks of it," she says with a nod toward bleeding guy, her voice disapproving, like she thinks Jason is purposefully trying to hide the extent of his injuries. Then she gives them another look over, more slowly this time, and something in her face gives way in recognition. "Probably want some nectar, hmm?" she asks, her voice just slightly softer, and all three of the kids stiffen immediately and visibly. "I have some in the back."

  
"How did you know that?" the dark-haired girl growls, one hand reaching for the other wrist in a way that Jason would usually think meant she was about to go for a weapon, except, well, there is very clearly no weapon on her wrist. The blonde girl, meanwhile, _does_ pull a knife out of - somewhere, except that for the life of him Jason would swear that the knife is made of bronze, which makes possibly a little more sense than everyone freaking out over the word 'nectar', but not by much.

  
Sabine just smiles, holding both hands up in appeasement, her eyes suddenly sad in a way Jason's only seen them once before. "It's all right," she says, her voice soft and soothing, and _that's_ certainly not normal; 'soft' isn't really a word that usually fits her at all. "I'm just like you, _Halbblüter_." She pauses for a moment, glances at Jason in a way that's heavy and considering, before she adds, "Daughter of Apollo," and almost immediately all three of the strangers sag in relief, bleeding guy letting out a gasping sigh and a nod.

  
Jason doesn’t have any idea what that means or what the hell is going on, really, but hey, he thought Sabine would be able to help them, and he was right, so really he feels pretty okay about it, even though she'd called them "half-bloods" - he does know _that_ much German, considering the amount of time he spends in this shop - and then told them she was the daughter of a Greek god.

  
"I'll go get the nectar, then," Sabine says, bustling off to the back room, and in her absence the shop seems very large and quiet, the four of them standing around awkwardly and not saying a word to each other, bleeding guy sort of awkwardly suspended between his two friends.

  
"So," Jason finally says, the sounds of Sabine clinking about in the back separated from them by the swinging curtain that served as a door. "Why did she call you half-bloods? Half of what? Also, do I ever get to learn your names?"

  
The blonde girl blinks at him in surprise, finally speaking up. She's younger than the other two, he realizes suddenly, by at least a couple of years; it doesn't seem to have any bearing on the fierceness of her stormy gray eyes. "You mean you don't know?" she asks, her voice rough with tiredness and worry. "But then how did you know to bring us here for nectar?"

  
"Annabeth," her dark-haired companion cuts in sharply. "If he doesn't know, he doesn't know, and we're just lucky he has good taste in herbalists."

  
The blonde - Annabeth, apparently - sniffs a little, apparently in agreement, but bleeding guy sighs and then smiles at them placatingly. "It's okay, T," he says, the last bit of the nickname swallowed in a yawn that makes him wince. "If he was a monster, I kind of think he would have attacked us by now instead of bringing us to get help." Then he turns that smile on Jason, and it does a little to assuage the fact that he's a little miffed over all this secrecy when he really _is_ doing his level best to help them out. "I'm Luke, and this is Thalia and Annabeth," he says, gesturing with a nod of his head to each of his companions.

  
Jason nods at that, satisfied with the modicum of information, and after a moment more of pause Sabine comes back from the back room with not just a cup of a familiar liquid in an old blue cup, but also a bowl of water with three washcloths folded over the side.

  
"Here. Not too much," she tells Luke warningly, pressing the cup to his lips; he takes a drink and almost immediately he's standing up straighter, sighing in relief and taking his wait off of the girls' shoulders. He takes another sip and his eyes flutter closed, relief shining through in every facet of his expression; meanwhile, Sabine hands the bowl of water to Thalia, who immediately wets a washcloth and hands it to Annabeth, who starts to clean some of the copious grime off of her face. Jason watches them with a lingering curiosity; these are without a doubt the weirdest kids he's ever seen. They're almost certainly runaways, but normal runaways don't have secret Greek mythology codewords and massively bleeding wild-animal wounds and they also don't usually worry about people being _monsters_.

  
Also, they don't recover completely from their wounds in under a minute, but that appears by all accounts to have been what just happened to Luke, because he sure looks fine now. He hands the cup back to Sabine with a murmured "Thank you," and she immediately whisks it away to the back, leaving the four of them alone again.

  
"What is that stuff, anyway?" Jason asks, leaning against one of the shelves and looking across at the other three with vague suspicion. "Sure perked you up pretty quick. And why does it taste like chilidogs?"

  
Luke slowly raises his head, exchanging a dumbfounded glance with Thalia before pinning him with a sharp look. "I thought you weren't a half-blood?" he asks, like Jason is absolutely supposed to know what that means. He completely doesn't, which is frustrating, and he's about to tell them so when Sabine answers for him.

  
"He is," she says, her voice heavy, and the focus of the room shifts from Jason to where she's leaning heavily on the counter in short order. "He's getting old, too. Twelve."

  
His age is apparently also significant, because the entire room gets more serious when she says that, everyone's expressions suddenly very grave. "But no monsters?" Luke asks incredulously, and Sabine shakes her head.

  
"We’ve been lucky," she says, and Thalia snorts and mutters something about understatements. "And I have herbs for most everything," Sabine adds, and Thalia chokes on a laugh.

  
They lapse into silence, and Jason glances from person to person incredulously. None of them seem like they're going to explain anything, and that is bullshit if he's ever seen any. Like, really. Who do any of these people think they _are_? And Sabine's not usually this ridiculous. "What the hell," he finally says, the words incredulous and bursting out of him without a reason, and everyone's looking at him. "No, really," he adds when none of them answer. "What the hell are we talking about?"

  
There's only one more beat of shocked silence, and then suddenly Luke bursts out laughing. It takes a moment, but the sudden tension frizzles away, changing shape and becoming Sabine's familiar, sad smile, and Thalia's smirk, and Annabeth's hoarse laugh. Jason's still kind of incredulous, but then Luke's swaggering over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, and even among all these gods and magic potions his hand feels strong and warm and very real.

  
"Jason," he says, "you're a child of the gods. Wanna come with us? We kill monsters sometimes."

  
He doesn't have any idea what the fuck he's signing up for, but he says yes anyway.


End file.
